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#MayPac: The Impossible Waltz
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“I wanted to give the fans what they wanted to see – they wanted to see a toe-to-toe battle. Fans don’t want to see me moving. They want to see me coming forward, so that’s what we did tonight.”
This is Floyd Mayweather talking to Larry Merchant after his 2010 mismatch with Shane Mosley. Merchant had made his first question about the perceived abandonment by Mayweather of his “defensive genius.”
In truth, Mayweather had done no such thing, but he had changed as a fighter and this was the night upon which it became apparent. Mayweather “retired” in 2007 after two glorious moving performances against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, and upon his comeback had matched Juan Manuel Marquez, who he dwarfed. Mayweather spent much of that fight inching forwards or holding ground but he was both the bigger man and the puncher in that fight so his apparently aggressive approach looked natural. But against Mosley he was expected to move.
Everything you might have said about him had he done so could still be said – he was too fast, too quick and too clever for a stumbling Shane Mosley, past-prime but coming off a very impressive win over Antonio Margarito. But he did not move, or to be more precise, he did not fight a moving fight. Even the fighter’s own claim that he “boxed the first couple of rounds” must be called into question as Mayweather and Mosley repeatedly bumped up on the inside, Mayweather even contesting some of the clinches and to the surprise of many his newfound post-retirement size and strength made him far from the victim Mosley’s ruggedness was expected to make of him there. A new reality unfolded: even while he eschewed in disdain Mosley’s body as a target, Mayweather himself had become more available for the jab to the body than at any other time in his career. The payoff was a direct route to Mosley’s head and jaw, which Mayweather filled with punches throughout.
In round two, Shane Mosley hit Mayweather with a right-hand which remains the hardest punch Floyd has ever taken in his ring career. Mayweather was rattled but did not budge; he remained in range, he invited Mosley to the pocket, and allowed his opponent to tag him with another right hand before the round was out. The best mover of his generation had been hit with the hardest punch of his career and left his bike parked at ringside. Mayweather Mark II was born in that moment.
I was sad about this at first. The world is full of fighters who stand their ground and fight but boxers like the one that destroyed Diego Corrales way back in 2001 are incredibly rare. Mayweather was electric, eclectic, using every inch of canvas until Corrales was in control of exactly none of it, giving up square feet and then inches in a gradual easement that was almost otherworldly; that placed him, it seems to me now, nearer the tower inhabited by the likes of Roy Jones and Ray Robinson than the streets where earthbound pugilists swarm.
That argument is for another day though. What interests us now, in the light of the thunderclouds gathering on Mayweather’s horizon in the shape of a perpetually aggressive southpaw, is the recent history of the man they call Money. In shorthand, after Mosley, Mayweather made the most lavish living in all of sports doing what people liked to say he couldn’t do in 2003, namely beat a series of welterweight and light-middleweight pressure fighters in the pocket. Of course he still moved, but his movement was typified now by economy; against Robert Guerrero especially he maintained an exquisitely tight circle, turning his opponent often, inviting him to punch, countering him but just as often throwing out leads in short squabbles over territory that inevitably ended in Mayweather’s favour. Mayweather has written an old tune with his commitment to arbitrary rather than patterned head and upper-body movement but he has taken the song and made it his own. Certainly it wasn’t the steady ground that he gave that baffled Canelo Alvarez in 2013, a shrewd flooding of the space behind him which worked well in bringing the numbed Alvarez steadily forwards, but rather the sudden egress when he allowed Alvarez to catch him that was the difference in that fight. In the sixth he suddenly filled the space he was narrowly vacating with every variety of right hand that can be named, and the fight as a contest was over.
His fight with Cotto, and the first with Marcos Maidana were a little more troubling. In both of these contests Mayweather was, for the first time since the adoption of his new style, pressed. This was not the same as his being buzzed by that chopping Mosley right, this was consistent and direct pressure brought by opponents who believed in their style and their chances, Cotto because of his size and strength, Maidana because of unfettered surety in his own aggression. It would be a gross exaggeration to say that either man came close to beating him, but Mayweather looked uncomfortable.
Against Maidana, especially, Floyd was handled for spells. The Argentine came for him two handed with his head up the middle, which is not to imply that Maidana was butting Mayweather but rather to say that he was brave enough to place his head in a position that made it likely that he would be hit but that eliminated one plane of movement for a Mayweather escape – keep in mind now that I am speaking not of his employing his legs, but rather head and upper body movement. Mayweather couldn’t dip because he would have been driving his face into Maidana’s skull. If he went straight back into the ropes, Maidana would naturally gain space into which he was leaning, again, dangerous, but the brave and the correct decision.
Mayweather elected to hold his ground once more. This was the fight that really called out for a moving strategy; it would have rendered what ended up being a close decision win for Mayweather a rout. Maidana did not have the science or the physical abilities necessary to keep up with the Floyd Mayweather that destroyed Corrales, or even the one that narrowly out-pointed De La Hoya. But still he did not move, still he stayed in the pocket, weaving, tilting, perhaps barely outlanding a fighter that threw around twice as many punches as him and roughed him up in the process. If we could believe Mayweather Senior when he claimed that fighting rather than boxing had been the plan against Mosley, we could not believe that here. Mayweather neglected to move against Maidana not because he wouldn’t but because he couldn’t.
Mayweather’s legs have gone.
When I say “gone”, I don’t, of course, mean “gone”. George Foreman had “no legs” when he won the world’s heavyweight title. A fighter without legs isn’t incapable of movement but rather is incapable of controlling the tempo of the fight with movement.
For a fighter like Foreman Mark II, this is no disaster. He can maintain pressure by shuffling forwards and eating punches, hoping for the chance to land that dream shot. But for a fighter like Mayweather it should have been a total disaster. History tells us that a fighter losing his legs is inevitable and that, in the case of the mobile defensive genius, it signals the end of his career. Ivan Calderon is the best example in recent history. Belatedly admitted to the various pound-for-pound lists published on the internet and elsewhere, he was already past-prime when he became well known to boxing fans. Although he sported quick pistols and fluidity in pulling the trigger, it was footwork that set Calderon apart for the five years he boxed as the best little-man on the planet. When his legs betrayed him he was finished and even against a fighter as limited as Moises Fuentes, who battered him into submission in his very last fight, he was chanceless, sinking sadly to his haunches and accepting the count.
Time moves fast for a fighter who trades on speed of movement and it catches up to every boxer of this style. Even the great Willie Pep was forced to take a knee when his feet couldn’t keep him ahead of the merciless Sandy Saddler. Roy Jones, in turn, was tracked down and destroyed by Glen Johnson, a wolf he would have slaughtered in a previous life but one he could not keep from the door once his legs had betrayed him.
Cast your mind back to the opening paragraph of this article for a moment if you will. Larry Merchant asked Mayweather:
“Floyd…why did you turn yourself from – a defensive wizard into an offensive force?”
And Mayweather replied:
“I wanted to give the fans what they wanted to see – they wanted to see a toe-to-toe battle. Fans don’t want to see me moving. They want to see me coming forward, so that’s what we did tonight.”
A more honest answer would have been, “I’ve got to give the fans what they want to see. The fans won’t see me moving again for twelve rounds because I can’t do it. Sometimes, I’m going to have to come forwards. That’s what we did tonight.”
What Mayweather, like Muhammad Ali before him, has recognised, is that there is another way. Ali knew years before he employed the rope-a-dope against George Foreman that he would have to look for another solution to the fifteen round championship distance, that he couldn’t, even in his prime, dance a 215lb machine around the ring for fifteen rounds. His solution was the ropes, a lot of absorption, an uncanny ability to read punches and a fabulous ability to pick and land counterpunches.
Floyd, like Ali, has endured a period of inactivity prior to which he was the best mover of his generation, and like Ali he has returned to the ring without that mobility. What Ali and Mayweather have both recognised is that control is everything; and if you can’t control the ring with your legs control it some other way. Against Foreman, Ali gave his opponent everything he wanted. Big George came to that ring to walk Ali down and force his (by the standards of the day) old legs into surrender. So Ali gave him exactly what he wanted from the second round and took advantage of the over-exuberance in the “destroy” portion of the “seek and destroy” equation that Foreman personified. Mayweather has done the same thing. He has chosen pressure fighters because he knows he can control them; because he knows at any given moment where they will be and that is front and centre, missing him, and getting hit with counterpunches.
But his legs have still gone. If he could adopt a moving strategy, we would have seen it by now. The maximum he can offer was on display in Mayweather’s last fight, the rematch with Maidana, won by Floyd at a canter as he took measures to ensure he would only intermittently have to fight off the ropes: narrow relaxed steps and a fast clinch when his back touched the top strand. Even this modest commitment to mobility seemed to have a price as Mayweather threw a measly 326 punches according to Compubox (netting him just under 100k a punch), far and away his lowest total ever recorded over twelve rounds. Any physical activity is a balancing act. Running is a balancing act between the legs and the lungs; boxing is a balancing act between movement and fighting, acted upon externally by the opponent. In fights where he punches instead of moves, Mayweather can still toss out over 600 punches as he did against Miguel Cotto. In selecting recommitment to movement to some small degree against Maidana he limited his output severely. Nor is it a matter of contact, a matter of movement keeping him away from the combat zone. Against De La Hoya, Mayweather spent the whole fight moving and threw almost five-hundred punches. This is an exquisite rendering of a fighter past his prime, perched perfectly on the cliff edge it is his destiny to fall from should he go on too long.
Now, finally, enter Manny Pacquiao stage left. Pacquiao himself is many years removed from the 1,000 punches he threw against Joshua Clottey but he is still a destroyer. He is still, on paper, the exact type that would be expected to slaughter a defensive genius forced to adapt to new realities. A hard puncher with an awkward style, he looks every inch Sandy Saddler to Mayweather’s Willie Pep. And yet Mayweather is an overwhelming favourite to win their contest come May 2nd.
Why?
It’s the question that burned for me from almost the moment the fight was made. At first, I was nodding along with those predicting an easy points victory for Mayweather. Sure, why not? He had the clear style advantage all those years ago when the fight was really hot, and although both were past their prime, Manny, still re-gathering himself after a hideous knock out defeat at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, was even more so. But when the fight began to broil under the obsessed eye of the media and I began to check out of the endless coverage I also began to wonder.
Manny wants to forage. He wants to stand just out of range hustling, feinting, dipping, and then bursting forwards into the pocket, firing. In 2008, the likely outcome would have been a slip, a slide, a counter, then a shuck or a step with a right-hand lead to kiss Pacquiao goodbye before sliding back out into some other quarter of the ring. The style advantage then belonged to Mayweather.
Now when Manny forages the likely outcome will be a slip, a counter but then a bump or a clinch or a shoulder-role and a possible exchange. That, to me, sounds like the style advantage now belongs to Pacquiao.
There has been some questions as to who the puncher will be in this fight. Pacquiao has not stopped an opponent since Miguel Cotto in 2009 and Mayweather’s new found strength at 147lbs has impressed many, not least of all me. But this question is neither here nor there in trying to unpick their respective strategies. The question that matters is who wants to initiate the exchanges? To whose advantage are exchanges in this fight? Because it is impossible for Manny to win if output is low, the answer is clearly “Pacquiao”. If, in fact, Mayweather can outpunch him he will still lose, but because there is no opportunity here for him to outbox Mayweather, that unpleasant fact (should it be one) will not affect either man’s strategy.
To sum up in a line: there will be more exchanges in this fight than there would have been in 2008. On paper that narrows the odds in Pacquiao’s favourite.
The stunning knockout of Pacquiao by Marquez and the inevitable diminishing of his punch output has turned the wheel of public perception too far in Mayweather’s direction in my opinion. If Mayweather moves more than he wants to, his engine will suffer and his output will likely drop to somewhere around 400 punches. I don’t think this is necessarily enough to get him over the line. On the other hand, if he elects to stand his ground as his Mark II stylistics have called upon him to do, I would expect him to throw more than five-hundred punches at Pacquiao – which is enough to get the job done but forces him into exchanges with the remnants of the best offence of this generation. Both options contain risks; both options allow Mayweather to exert control over the action – but I believe the first option probably carries the greatest risk of defeat, and that Mayweather who has become, against all the odds, one of the great ring pragmatists, will favour the second option. I expect Mayweather to fight Pacquiao almost exclusively in the pocket in the second two thirds of the fight. He’ll redress the situation with movement on occasion when he starts to feel uncomfortable as he did against Miguel Cotto; we are not going to see Pacquiao machine-gun Mayweather with punches at his age, meaning a Maidana style mauling is off the cards – unless Freddie Roach and Manny Pacquiao believe a decision to be an impossibility and decide to go for the early stoppage – but for the most part these two are going to spend a great deal of this fight on the edge of exchanges.
My guess is those exchanges will still favour Mayweather. Everyone has been hitting Pacquiao with right hands in recent years, up to and including Chris Algieri, who repeatedly landed a scuffing version of the punch on Manny as he swooped in. Although Algieri had to go to the body to land many of his meaningful rights, Mayweather has perhaps the best right-hand in the business. He will land it often and flush. On the other hand I expect Mayweather to be able to ride, deflect, crowd and step out on most of Pacquiao’s best work. Who, when really thinking about it however, can deny that Pacquiao will, like the past-prime Mosley, have his past-prime moment? In days of Mayweather past the vanishing act in the following round would have been complete, but if Pacquiao hurts Mayweather – when Pacquiao hurts Mayweather – the next three-hundred seconds of combat will be waged in the pocket, the best infighting offence of this generation let loose upon the best defensive infighter of this generation.
That is what is happening May 2nd and I hope it is not just Pacquiao who can gather to himself the praise deserved should he find a route to victory. Mayweather too must be credited, as one of the few defensive geniuses to have relied primarily upon mobility to cement his greatness but survive the departure of that mobility against one of the genuine destroyers of his era, for all that the destroyer was once upon a time a better fighter.
And a final thought – for all that this match might have been fought on a higher plane in 2008 I suspect it would also have been less entertaining.
I would stop short of predicting war, but a taught and hurtful battle is in the offing, I think.
The winner will join Roy Jones and Pernell Whitaker among the pantheon of true modern greats.
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Niyomtrong Proves a Bridge Too Far for Alex Winwood in Australia
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Today in Perth, Australia, Alex Winwood stepped up in class in his fifth pro fight with the aim of becoming the fastest world title-holder in Australian boxing history. But Winwood (4-0, 2 KOs heading in) wasn’t ready for WBA strawweight champion Thammanoon Niyomtrong, aka Knockout CP Freshmart, who by some accounts is the longest reigning champion in the sport.
Niyomtrong (25-0, 9 KOs) prevailed by a slim margin to retain his title. “At least the right guy won,” said prominent Australian boxing writer Anthony Cocks who thought the scores (114-112, 114-112, 113-113) gave the hometown fighter all the best of it.
Winwood, who represented Australia in the Tokyo Olympics, trained for the match in Thailand (as do many foreign boxers in his weight class). He is trained by Angelo Hyder who also worked with Danny Green and the Moloney twins. Had he prevailed, he would have broken the record of Australian boxing icon Jeff Fenech who won a world title in his seventh pro fight. A member of the Noongar tribe, Winwood, 27, also hoped to etch on his name on the list of notable Australian aboriginal boxers alongside Dave Sands, Lionel Rose and the Mundines, Tony and Anthony, father and son.
What Winwood, 27, hoped to capitalize on was Niyomtrong’s theoretical ring rust. The Thai was making his first start since July 20 of 2022 when he won a comfortable decision over Wanheng Menayothin in one of the most ballyhooed domestic showdowns in Thai boxing history. But the Noongar needed more edges than that to overcome the Thai who won his first major title in his ninth pro fight with a hard-fought decision over Nicaragua’s Carlos Buitrago who was 27-0-1 heading in.
A former Muai Thai champion, Niyomtrong/Freshmart turns 34 later this month, an advanced age for a boxer in the sport’s smallest weight class. Although he remains undefeated, he may have passed his prime. How good was he in his heyday? Prominent boxing historian Matt McGrain has written that he was the most accomplished strawweight in the world in the decade 2010-2019: “It is not close, it is not debatable, there is no argument.”
Against the intrepid Winwood, Niyomtrong started slowly. In round seven, he cranked up the juice, putting the local fighter down hard with a left hook. He added another knockdown in round nine. The game Winwood stayed the course, but was well-beaten at the finish, no matter that the scorecards suggested otherwise, creating the impression of a very close fight.
P.S. – Because boxrec refused to name this a title fight, it fell under the radar screen until the result was made known. In case you hadn’t noticed, boxrec is at loggerheads with the World Boxing Association and has decided to “de-certify” the oldest of the world sanctioning bodies. While this reporter would be happy to see the WBA disappear – it is clearly the most corrupt of the four major organizations – the view from here is that boxrec is being petty. Moreover, if this practice continues, it will be much harder for boxing historians of future generations to sort through the rubble.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 295: Callum Walsh, Pechanga Casino Fights and More
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Super welterweight contender Callum Walsh worked out for reporters and videographers at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif. on Thursday,
The native of Ireland Walsh (11-0, 9 KOs) has a fight date against Poland’s Przemyslaw Runowski (22-2-1, 6 KOs) on Friday, Sept. 20 at the city of Dublin. It’s a homecoming for the undefeated southpaw from Cork. UFC Fight Pass will stream the 360 Promotions card.
Mark down the date.
Walsh is the latest prodigy of promoter Tom Loeffler who has a history of developing European boxers in America and propelling them forward on the global boxing scene. Think Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin and you know what I mean.
Golovkin was a middleweight monster for years.
From Kevin Kelley to Oba Carr to Vitaly Klitschko to Serhii Bohachuk and many more in-between, the trail of elite boxers promoted by Loeffler continues to grow. Will Walsh be the newest success?
Add to the mix Dana White, the maestro of UFC, who is also involved with Walsh and you get a clearer picture of what the Irish lad brings to the table.
Walsh has speed, power and a glint of meanness that champions need to navigate the prizefighting world. He also has one of the best trainers in the world in Freddie Roach who needs no further introduction.
Perhaps the final measure of Walsh will be when he’s been tested with the most important challenge of all:
Can he take a punch from a big hitter?
That’s the final challenge
It always comes down to the chin. It’s what separates the Golovkins from the rest of the pack. At the top of the food chain they all can hit, have incredible speed and skill, but the fighters with the rock hard chins are those that prevail.
So far, the chin test is the only examination remaining for Walsh.
“King’ Callum Walsh is ready for his Irish homecoming and promises some fireworks for the Irish fans. This will be an entertaining show for the fans and we are excited to bring world class boxing back to the 3Arena in Dublin,” said Loeffler.
Pechanga Fights
MarvNation Promotions presents a battle between welterweight contenders Jose “Chon” Zepeda (37-5, 28 KOs) and Ivan Redkach (24-7-1, 19 KOs) on Friday, Sept. 6, at Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula. DAZN will stream the fight card.
Both have fought many of the best welterweights in the world and now face each other. It should be an interesting clash between the veterans.
Also on the card, featherweights Nathan Rodriguez (15-0) and Bryan Mercado (11-5-1) meet in an eight-round fight.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. First bout at 7 p.m.
Monster Inoue
Once again Japan’s Naoya Inoue dispatched another super bantamweight contender with ease as TJ Doheny was unable to continue in the seventh round after battered by a combination on Tuesday in Tokyo.
Inoue continues to brush away whoever is placed in front of him like a glint of dust.
Is the “Monster” the best fighter pound-for-pound on the planet or is it Terence Crawford? Both are dynamic punchers with skill, speed, power and great chins.
Munguia in Big Bear
Super middleweight contender Jaime Munguia is two weeks away from his match with Erik Bazinyan at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. ESPN will show the Top Rank card.
“Erik Bazinyan is a good fighter. He’s undefeated. He switches stances. We need to be careful with that. He’s taller and has a longer reach than me. He has a good jab. He can punch well on the inside. He’s a fighter who comes with all the desire to excel,” said Munguia.
Bazinyan has victories over Ronald Ellis and Alantez Fox.
In case you didn’t know, Munguia moved over to Top Rank but still has ties with Golden Boy Promotions and Zanfer Promotions. Bazinyan is promoted by Eye of the Tiger.
This is the Tijuana fighter’s first match with Top Rank since losing to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last May in Las Vegas. He is back with trainer Erik Morales.
Callum Walsh photo credit: Lina Baker
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60 Years Ago This Month, the Curtain Fell on the Golden Era of TV Boxing
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The Sept. 11, 1964 fight between Dick Tiger and Don Fullmer marked the end of an era. The bout aired on ABC which had taken the reins from NBC four years earlier. This would be the final episode of the series informally known as the “Friday Night Fights” or the “Fight of the Week,” closing the door on a 20-year run. In the future, boxing on free home TV (non-cable) would be sporadic, airing mostly on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The days when boxing was a weekly staple on at least one major TV network were gone forever.
During the NBC years, the show ran on Friday in the 10:00-11-00 pm slot for viewers in the Eastern Time Zone and the “studio” was almost always Madison Square Garden. The sponsor from the very beginning was the Gillette razor company (during the ABC run, El Producto Cigars came on as a co-sponsor).
Gillette sponsored many sporting events – the Kentucky Derby, the World Series, the U.S. Open golf tournament and the Blue-Gray college football all-star game, to name just a few – all of which were bundled under the handle of the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports. Every sports fan in America could identify the catchphrase that the company used to promote their disposable “Blue Blades” – “Look Sharp, Feel Sharp, Be Sharp!” — and the melody of the Gillette jingle would become the most-played tune by marching bands at high school and college football halftime shows (the precursor, one might say, of the Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie”).
The Sept. 11 curtain-closer wasn’t staged at Madison Square Garden but in Cleveland with the local area blacked out.
Dick Tiger, born and raised in Nigeria, was making his second start since losing his world middleweight title on a 15-round points decision to Joey Giardello. Don Fullmer would be attempting to restore the family honor. Dick Tiger was 2-0-1 vs. Gene Fullmer, Don’s more celebrated brother. Their third encounter, which proved to be Gene Fullmer’s final fight, was historic. It was staged in Ibadan, Nigeria, the first world title fight ever potted on the continent of Africa.
In New York, the epitaph of free TV boxing was written three weeks earlier when veteran Henry Hank fought up-and-comer Johnny Persol to a draw in a 10-round light heavyweight contest at the Garden. This was the final Gillette fight from the place where it all started.
Some historians trace the advent of TV boxing in the United States to Sept. 29, 1944, when a 20-year-old boxer from Connecticut, Willie Pep, followed his manager’s game plan to perfection, sticking and moving for 15 rounds to become the youngest featherweight champion in history, winning the New York version of the title from West Coast veteran Albert “Chalky” Wright.
There weren’t many TVs in use in those days. As had been true when the telephone was brand new, most were found in hospitals, commercial establishments, and in the homes of the very wealthy. But within a few years, with mass production and tumbling prices, the gizmo became a living room staple and the TV repairman, who made house calls like the family doctor, had a shop on every Main Street.
Boxing was ideally suited to the infant medium of television because the action was confined to a small area that required no refurbishment other than brighter illumination, keeping production costs low. The one-minute interval between rounds served as a natural commercial break. The main drawback was that a fight could end early, meaning fewer commercials for the sponsor who paid a flat rate.
At its zenith, boxing in some locales aired five nights a week. And it came to be generally seen that this oversaturation killed the golden goose. One by one, the small fight clubs dried up as fight fans stayed home to watch the fights on TV. In the big arenas, attendance fell off drastically. Note the difference between Pep vs. Wright, the 1944 originator, and Hank vs. Persol, also at Madison Square Garden:
Willie Pep vs. Chalky Wright Sept. 29, 1944 attendance 19,521
Henry Hank vs. Johnny Persol Aug. 21, 1964 attendance 5,219
(True, Pep vs. Wright was a far more alluring fight, but this fact alone doesn’t explain the wide gap. Published attendance counts aren’t always trustworthy. In the eyes of the UPI reporter who covered the Hank-Persol match, the crowd looked smaller. He estimated the attendance at 3,000.)
Hank vs. Persol was an entertaining bout between evenly-matched combatants. The Tiger-Fullmer bout, which played out before a sea of empty seats, was a snoozer. Don Fullmer, a late sub for Rocky Rivero who got homesick and returned to Argentina, was there just for the paycheck. A Pittsburgh reporter wrote that the match was as dull as a race between two turtles. Scoring off the “5-point-must” system, the judges awarded the match to Dick Tiger by margins of 6, 6, and 7 points.
And that was that. Some of the most sensational fights in the annals of boxing aired free on a major TV network, but the last big bang of the golden era was hardly a bang, merely a whimper.
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A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.
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The photo accompanying this article is from the 1962 fight at Madison Square Garden between Dick Tiger (on the right) and Henry Hank. To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
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